Art Biography of Deirdre Kelly
Deirdre Kelly, originally from North Vancouver, B.C. moved to Vancouver Island in the late 1970’s. Her main mediums were painting in acrylic and oils, multi media work, and photography. She combined her passions of social justice, spirituality, and love of nature as themes that can be seen in her work. She described her creative process as ‘an amalgam of drawing from nature, building up layers, considering the periphery, and revisiting projects after breaks until they ‘feel right’.
From Deirdre’s own description in 2016, she “had been making art in her backyard studio on Vancouver Island for many years”. She was inspired for her paintings on recent and past trips to Central America, Europe, Cuba, and Japan, as well as her home in Victoria and around the Island. “These sojourns, and points in-between have provided richness in experience, both artistic and otherwise – inevitably finding their way into my subject choices.”
She graduated from the Victoria College of Art in 2008, and continued to work with photography and contemporary painting in acrylics and oils, including multi media work.
Deirdre’s art was shown frequently at the local prestigious Sooke and Sidney Fine Arts juried shows.
She won an ‘Honourable Mention’ in 2009 from the Victoria Community Arts Council (CACVA) “Look” show for her photograph entitled “Bus Stop”. In 2007, she also won a prize from the CACVA “Look” show for a charcoal drawing entitled “3 AM”.
In 2011, Deirdre won the 3rd prize in a juried exhibition at the Madrona Gallery in Victoria for her work entitled “The Underlying Spirit, Homage to Emily Carr”.
In 2008, Deirdre was an inaugural participant in the annual neighbourhood studio tour, the Fernwood Art Stroll. On one weekend in the late spring, Interested viewers would come to her home and studio, and view the art, new and old, that was on display. She continued that involvement until 2017. Her husband John has shown her work at the stroll from 2018 until the present day.
In 2015. Deirdre was a founding member of the Gage Gallery Arts Collective, originally on Oak Bay Avenue in Victoria. She had 3 one person shows there and numerous group shows until she was forced to leave in the spring of 2017.